


Tangent makes her way home

by WindblownSand



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen, My First Fanart, fanbot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28325673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindblownSand/pseuds/WindblownSand
Summary: An introduction of my SPG fanbot
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Tangent makes her way home

She booted up and ran a systems check. Her memory was a bit wonky, but it seemed the three blue mini-cores were still intact, even if the links between them were intermittent. That was probably why her memory was off, but wasn't it always? Which reminded her ... what was she called again? There it was, in the third core, Tangent. As far as she could tell, there had always been a small dead spot in that mini-core, but with a little extra effort, she could get around it and find what she needed - usually. It was even helpful at times, when she buried memories behind it so she'd have a slight buffer to keep those memories gone until after the reboot completed.

And there it was, noise on the wi-fi. She spread her arms, hooking her fingers into the loops on the heavy back part of her top and jumped from the roof of the tall building she'd been standing on. She felt the warm current flow over and under her arms and adjusting the flaps before she pitched up and rolled a bit to the left. She flew away from the tall buildings and over the countryside until the noise cleared enough to catch the signal. When the signal came in nice and crisp, she circled so she could boost the distance it spread by using her altitude as she repeated it. She checked the raincoat sleeve she'd wrapped around her neck like a scarf and confirmed she was in controlled flight, then looking down, spotted a manor and figured she'd stop by when she got tired, figuring that's probably the signal she was boosting anyway.

A few hours later, she pitched for a landing and noticed other bots on the ground. That explained all the chatter, as she knew she was clearly not boosting for an airport's tower, given the content of the messages; it was far too laid back for anything official. Once she had come to a full stop, a shiny, silvery bot and a colorful bot, both dressed in black and red walked up to her.

"Hi, I'm the Spiiine and this is my sister, Rabbit. Nice buttons on that scarf, by the way. It looks a lot like our logo. Walter Robotics. I don't think we've met, though."

Tangent paused. "My sleeve? Maybe. It is a 'W', so why not? Was that you talking on wifi all this time? It sounded like you. Or maybe Rabbit if you've got the same voice. Or another bot. Honestly, I'm afraid I've only met humans for a long time, and everybody always wants to know who is eating up all the bandwidth, not that you were on the same band or anything."

Rabbit explained, "Spine's always talking to QWERTY, but if there was a belching recital, it was probably GG."

"Oh, I only boost the signal's range, it's humans that listen in.", Tangent replied. "Is everyone here a bot? I've seen buildings this size full of radios, computers, monitors, and other equipment, but not bots, at least, not that I remember..." She felt a bit embarrassed, but she did have a habit of forgetfulness. And what if the button on the sleeve around her neck really was the logo? Her first memory was waking up in a snowbank somewhere in Europe and she knew that couldn't possibly be where she was first built. Even modifications added to her later on were attached in more protected surroundings - her humans didn't even let the quiet birds they flew be repaired in anything less. Still, when she saw herself on the equipment list instead of with the other human members of the Cavalry, no amount of mythology about old-time Canteens and Fiddler's Green made up for the shattered illusion of comraderie. Lucky her, equipment just got lost, it didn't desert the Regiment, though come to think of it, she never did sign a contract, so there was that, too.

Spine looked concerned and Rabbit spoke up, "Are you ok? I malfunction, too, so don't worry, we st-st-st-still like ya. You just stopped talking all of a sudden and-"

"Let her answer, Rabbit. I know you're excited about malfunctions, but just let her talk." Spine gave Rabbit a look that told her not to push it. "Tangent, I think you should meet Six. We'll take you to him and you can tell us about you on the way." He looked at Tangent's long fingers and just hooked her elbow in with hers.

As they walked to the manor, Tangent told Spine and Rabbit a bit about what she'd been doing with the Army, careful to avoid telling any secrets she'd promised to keep and realizing just how little there was to say as she kept those secrets. Along the way, Zer0 noticed the new bot, gleefully announced she was bigger than him, and insisted on being there when they they met up with Six so he could ask Six if they could keep her. Zer0 reminded Tangent of all the kids that came in on family day and saw her, though she hoped he didn't want to sit on her shoulders. He looked too heavy for that and she wasn't made to carry anything heavy on her shoulders. Wings are for flying, not sitting, after all. They met Six at the top of a long flight of stairs, explaining to GG that she should really take the other bots' feelings more seriously and maybe not threaten to put peanut butter in The Jon's copper hair. Tangent made a note to be especially cautious around the baby giraffe.

Six looked up to see who had just entered the room and gasped when he saw the sleeve. "What is your name and how did you get that raincoat sleeve? I thought it had been lost forever."


End file.
